I think the words "some" and "here and there" are relevant to the statement. Occasional issues may detract somewhat from a great experience, but they don't necessarily make the experience not great.

Obvious answer is obvious. I'll be honest, the only thing that has detracted at all from my enjoyment of this game is the unvoiced, tiny, uncontrollable and un-reviewable text boxes that will pop up in the middle of doing something that display character dialogue for 3 seconds and then disappear forever.

And I didn't really think that Electric was being combative, but I'm used to GFAQs message boards where literally every game is the worst game that has ever been made.

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

@Electricb7 You don't like the game, that is clear, but you do not need to be so combative with your opinions. Either comment respectfully or not at all.

Yeah I'm not being combative nor disrespectful. I was asking serious question. I looked back my post and I'm not seeing it.

I'm trying to figure out everyone's logic in reviewing this game. I'm on other message boards and the split on this game is weird in way that I cant make sense of. I guess people are just more forgiving on issues that I personally find bad enough to just stop playing.

@Electricb7 You don't like the game, that is clear, but you do not need to be so combative with your opinions. Either comment respectfully or not at all.

Yeah I'm not being combative nor disrespectful. I was asking serious question. I looked back my post and I'm not seeing it.

I'm trying to figure out everyone's logic in reviewing this game. I'm on other message boards and the split on this game is weird in way that I cant make sense of. I guess people are just more forgiving on issues that I personally find bad enough to just stop playing.

Your opinions on this previously have come across pretty aggressive, so the fact that you responded to my positivity at all I think put some of us on edge. I had no problem with what you said, personally. I am still really confused as to why you hated this as much as you did, but I also don't need to understand it.

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

But to add to this conversation in a semi-non-douchebag way, I'll admit that I'm not unbiased towards this game, much like how I'm not entirely unbiased towards the latest installment of Atlus' Persona Spam. Especially since I was one of those fools who bought into the hype surrounding Level 5's PS3 era's magnum ops, the White Knight Chronicles duology, and got horribly burned by it. With that being said though, I think there are some actually serious complaints one could easily level towards this game of Ni No Kuni II. Like the number of honest-to-god enemy types (and I'm talking like, fewer than the Original Zelda, levels of variety), or the inane plot that basically disregards everybody and everything save for Evan and Roland's Bogus Adventure, or even the not-Suikoden minigame that feels like its little more than an insulting bootleg facsimile since you don't even really interact with the sidequest in any meaningful way beyond it being yet another Level 5 grinding treadmill (I mean seriously, Final Fantasy Legends 3 did it better with the Talon, you don't need to break the dev cycle bank on implementing an Airship that gets better as you progress through the game).

For merits I've seen thus far, it has President Glock'o'clock, and the AI isn't actively trying to screw you over by suiciding your teammates on anything and everything sharper than a spoon, and there isn't an actively spiteful-of-your-life not-a-Pokemon gimmick with even more hateful sidequests that force you to interact with it in one of the worst ways possible....but again, I might be missing some of the trees in my Forest of Perspective and would appreciate getting proven wrong if at all possible.

LOL, Aeolus should have "Semi-Non-Douchebag" as a special title under his name.

Also, your criticisms are valid, but overstated. The lack of enemy types is disappointing, but hardly counts as a major flaw, considering the amount of variety in other areas. You say the plot is "inane", I say it's "simple" and "cute". And the Skirmishes are largely completely optional, so I'm not sure how it could be a weakness. You can get cool stuff from doing them (I think? Hardly done any yet) and it's neat to be able to use recruitable NPCs in a minigame.And all of that is ignoring the gorgeous visuals and art direction, the incredible amount of different things to do, the high quality of the voice acting, the charming characters, the fantastic music, etc etc.

I also want to mention that no game has ever disappointed me as hard as White Knight Chronicles, so I feel you there.

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"You know, you're pretty cool too, Arvis. You like good music, good games, and good tennis." - Divingfalcons

I've finally gotten around to playing this game. It feels like I'm playing a cartoon and it's a blast. One thing I like about the game is just how beautifully animated it all is. The game is definitely one of the most gorgeous games of the year. While you have a lot of Western games come out with some absolutely spectacular photorealistic visuals, this game's visual style still makes it incredibly memorable. The game, as I stated prior looks like a living, breathing anime, which is I think an equally standout achievement.

I do, like others have mentioned lamented the monster variety. I think menagerie is a little thin in its diversity. On the other hand, the monsters that are on display are animated beautifully and their designs are crisp and clean. Every single monster type (I am referring to the base designs, less palette swaps) is distinct and has its own personality which I like. Again, it would've been nice to have greater variety, but it seems that with the care put into each the developers decided to go with a less is more approach.

On the other hand, the game has a group of special monster encounters called tainted monsters. Unfortunately, they are simply souped up regular monsters with no unique designs which I find disappointing. Tales of Berseria had something similar with their Red Hunt monsters, but those had unique designs so I found this a little disappointing.

My favorite aspect of the game, though is the world map. What I mean by this is that it's a traditional JRPG world map with all the nooks and crannies to go with it. I get a feeling of discovery whenever I find a cave or forest that I can explore while traipsing about the world map. Having it back has been a breath of fresh air. I've never been a fan of the lack of world maps that have cropped up in JRPG's of late, so seeing this back has been a pleasant surprise.

I also find myself comparing this game's main dungeons to the dungeons in the recent Tales games. For the most part, the dungeons in Tales of Berseria, for instance are very drab and feel like hallway simulators. There really isn't much to do in them and I can't help but think that in the transition away from the traditional world map has taken something away from their dungeon designs. Even the open areas felt the same. It really came cleared to me when one of the site's staffers recently streamed Tales of Vesperia with its more interesting dungeon design. On the other hand, Ni No Kuni's dungeons all feel unique and their designs a lot more interesting. For instance, exploring Cloudcoil Canyon feels a lot different from Niall Forest. The places are very different in both their look and how you explore them. If the game had a greater variety of monster designs, they would've been even better.

This game is enjoyable, the town design is top-notch, and it's probably the closest I'm going to get to another Suikoden game, sadly. On the other end, the story seems pretty shallow so far and I'm roflstomping everything in combat, but it does make for a nice, relaxing experience.

Also Arvis, I'm sorry that you're wrong, but Goldpaw has the best town theme. :P